Battle of Galicia

The Battle of Galicia was fought from 23 August to 11 September 1914 during the Eastern Front campaign of World War I. The Imperial Russian Army forced the Austro-Hungarians out of Galicia in a major offensive, ruling Galicia until their defeat in the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive.

Background
Operations in Galicia proceeded in a fog of confusion, with commanders ill-informed of the scale and position of enemy forces. The Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hotzendorf opened with an advance northward from Galicia into Congress Poland, as demanded by his German allies. Barely across the border, Austro-Hungarian forces unexpectedly met Russian armies heading southward. Put into the field before mobilization was complete, the Russians had arrived more quickly than Conrad had anticipated.

In the last week of August, the Austro-Hungarian forces - which included formations of ethnic Poles eager to liberate their people from Russian oppression - won encounters at Krasnik and Komarov in Poland. Hypnotized by the prospect of crushing the Russian armies in Poland, Conrad paid little attention to the advance of other Russian forces over Galicia's eastern border near the fortress of Lemberg (now Lviv).

Battle
The Austro-Hungarian army in front of Lemberg, which had been depleted to provide troops for the Polish operation, advanced to meet the Russians, who were far stronger than expected. Suffering heavy losses at Zlotchow, the Austro-Hungarians fell back in disarray. Neither side understood the situation, the Russians not realizing the weakness of the enemy forces, and the Austro-Hungarians underestimating Russian strength. The Austrian Second Army was thrown into an offensive in eastern Galicia on 29 August, only to be repulsed with many casualties. Conrad's strategy was to pullb ack behind Lemberg, drawing the Russians forward, while his Fourth Army, in Poland, turned to attack the Russian flank. Disaster ensude. Lemberg fell to the Russians on 3 September. Three days later, the Fourth Army was cut to pieces attacking the Russians at Rava Russka, north of Lemberg.

Withdrawal to the Carpathians
Conrad suddenly awoke to the possibility that his forces in Poland could be surrounded by Russians advancing westward across Galicia. On 11 September, he ordered a general withdrawal to the natural barrier of the Carpathians. Pursued by Russian Cossack cavalry, the Austro-Hungarian armies fled westward, some retreating over 100 miles in two days. Przemysl, with a garrison of 150,000 soldiers, was left surrounded by Russians. By the time the Austro-Hungarians stabilized a defensive position at the end of September, they were reduced to a quarter of their original strength. Only German intervention could prevent defeat.

Aftermath
A partial Austro-Hungarian revival in the last three months of 1914 could not disguise its military weakness. The spirit of unity achieved between Austria-Hungary's diverse ethnic groups at the outbreak of war began to fray, and the country could not sustain the losses it was facing. In response to the near collapse of their allies, the Germans created a new army in Silesia to mount an offensive against Warsaw, thus threatening the rear of the Russian armies in Galicia. On the Serbian front, the Serb invasion of Bosnia was repulsed and Austro-Hungarian forces briefly occupied Belgrade before being forced to withdraw.